Global warming is dissolving the Alpine glaciers so rapidly that Italy and Switzerland have decided they must re-draw their national borders to take account of the new realities.
The border has been fixed since 1861, when Italy became a unified state. But for the past century the surface area of the “cryosphere”, the zone of glaciers, permanent snow cover and permafrost, has been shrinking steadily, with dramatic acceleration in the past five years. This is the area over which the national frontier passes and the two countries have now agreed to have their experts sit down together and hash out where it ought to run now.
Daniel Gutknecht, responsible for the co-ordination of national borders at Switzerland’s Office of Topography, said “the border is moving because of the warmer climate”, among other reasons.
Hannibal crossed that region 2,000 years ago over bare rock – with hundreds of Elephants, Horses and Mules. Elephant flatulence had melted all the glaciers.
Roman Warm Period which we have not recovered to by any measure and the evidence from that era shows we will need hundreds of years to achieve the flora extent that was in the region 2,000 years ago.
I lived and traveled in Europe in the mid to late seventies. One of my favorite haunts was Grindelwald Switzeralnd, at the base of the north face of the Eiger. At that time villagers were watching alpine glaciers march down the valleys, and they lived in fear of losing their quaint villages to ice fields. Alarmists have short memories.
The swiss and italians have been arguing about the border for years, and quarrelled over possession of “Otzi the ice-man.”
While talking about global warming we tend to avoid discussing few major causes of Global Warming.
Everyday new research papers are out and new stories are told about “Global Warming”.
I happened to watch this documentary “Meat The Truth” in online film festival “Green Unplugged” this documentary made me aware of few other things about global Warming which I never thought would be contributing so much towards it
I would suggest everyone to watch this documentary.